Decorating for Christmas

This year decorating went a lot faster than in previous years. The kids loved it. Even Kylie helped. Now if we could only convince them not to touch it now that it's up.

If you look really close you can see Jasper Frost, the elf that Santa Claus assigned our family this year. He watches over us every day and at night he goes and reports our behavior to Santa. Then in the morning he flies back to our house and hides in a new spot so the kids have to find him.

This is my banana leaf nativity set my mom brought us from Kenya last year. The camel is like the ones from Saudi Arabia that the wise men might have used and the box is made of camel bone and contains real frankincense and muhr and fake gold coins.

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. It's the first time we have had people come to our house for a holiday. It was a little chaotic but it was fun. I had to work Thanksgiving day so we had dinner on Fri. My sister and her family came up from Houston. We did Thanksgiving on Fri, and then on Sat we went to Sea World to see all their Christmas stuff. Enjoy the pictures!

Yes, they are watching He-Man and She-Ra Christmas special in the background.
Kylie made herself right at home with Uncle Kenny and Aunt Chiara.

Feeding the dolphins.

Such wonder.

My friend Valerie works in the Beluga whale and dolphin show. She lets me bring visitors backstage to pet the whales sometimes. Thanks so much Valerie!!

Poor Kylie, she was scared of the whale.

Halloween Post

Sorry I'm so behind. Here's our Halloween post. I am very proud of myself because I made both Gavin and Landan's costumes by hand from scratch, no pattern. I had a really hard time with Kylie's costume. She was going to be a princess but I ran out of time to make one for her. You would not believe how hard it is to find a princess costume for a 12 mo. old. I wanted her to be a regular princess, not a Disney princess and they just don't make princess costumes for her size because she's so little. I finally found one at JoAnns that worked well. I had a crown for her to wear but she kept taking it off.

It was a busy weekend. First we went to San Antonio to go to my niece, Norah's, 3rd birthday party. It was really cute. It was a rainbow party because she likes Rainbow Brite. I love going to this little girl's house because she has to prettiest hair and tons of it so I get to play with it when we visit.

Isn't this the coolest cake ever. That's the actual cake, no frosting. Turned out great.

Then we went to Houston to visit family there. I don't have many pictures except for just on Halloween day. My sister had to work but her kids were off school so we took everyone to the Houston Zoo. It was really fun. The kids got to dress up in their costumes and trick or treat throughout the zoo and see all the animals.

Landan-knight, Gavin- dragon, Kylie-princess, Nathan- Casper the Ghost, Kenny- Batman at the pumpkin patch

Picking out their own pumpkins

Kylie looking at the monkeys. She was so good at the zoo. She just sat quietly in her stroller and never complained. Is this a Thompson face or what?

Behind the kids is a bald eagle that has a bust wing. Someone shot it and they rescued it but since it's wing is messed up it can't go back into the wild. Her name was Liberty.

All tired out.

Pretending to be prairie dogs

Giraffes

After the zoo we hung out at my brothers house until it was time to go trick-or-treating. Here's Gavin in his dragon costume. He was so excited for me to make it.

Here's my knight in shining armor.

Here's my neice and nephew. Aren't they cute? My nephew is only 6 mo. old but he weighs 4 lbs more than my 18 mo old and he's only about an inch shorter. I love his chubby cheeks.

And that was our Halloween.

Kylie 18 Months

Kylie at her first day of nursery. She did great. She really liked coloring.

Kylie went to the doctor a week ago. She was exactly 18 months. She's developing nicely. Only says about 5 words on her own but he didnt' recommend her for speech thank goodness. She repeats a lot of words so she'll be fine, I'm not worried about her. Still little though. The pedi said the AAP redid the weight charts though so she's actually on it now, 2nd percentile. She weighs in at a whopping 18 lbs, 12 oz., and is 29 3/4 in. tall. She's just starting to fit into most of her 12 mo. clothes. She is such a sweetie. She's starting to show a more aggressive side now that we're entering toddlerhood but mostly she's still an easy baby. She adores Landan and loves to give him hugs. She loves to read books too. And she's grown quite attached to her baby doll lately. And that's our little girl in a nutshell.

P.S. She's going to have a new little sister soon. We're having another girl!!

End of Season Party

We had an end of football season party at a park. It was beautiful weather. The kids had a great time.

While Landan was off playing with his football buddies, Gavin entered into a game of dominos.

Honoring the coaches with trophies.